…For the first year at least. It doesn’t feel the year is over, so it is a slightly surreal feeling knowing I’ll never sleep in my halls again. Spooky.
This is a quite marvellous post by Norman Geras on the Marxist view of Murali’s action. Offering you this tasty morsel will have to do for now, until I find something to annoy me. Off to read today’s Niall Ferguson column………
-posted by Roy
I won’t bother posting about Roys cricket obsession. I enjoy the odd session with the willow and the seam, but Roy takes things too far.
Tish and pish Adam. I’m going to carry on regardless…..
Unfortunately, the only cricket news I have is bad. Stonkingly bad. Gives Plunkett more of a chance I suppose, which is a good thing. But we NEED him. If there is a God, he is an Australian Tory.
-posted by Roy
I felt a pang of nostalgia during the last Test between England and Sri Lanka. I had to go down to uni for an interview, and checked the score before I left. England were 95-1 chasing 325. All very well, it seemed. Yet in the time it took me to get ready, walk to campus, drop off some library books and then find a computer in the library to check the score again, England had lost five wickets. For thirty runs. It reminded me of English cricket from the 1990s, a hopeless catalogue of batting collapses. In the first Test of the 2001 Ashes England were about 110 for one when I checked the score at lunch. By the time I got back from school (about half three) England were seven down.
There was nothing that anyone could do on Monday. Murali was bowling like a beast. But England should have won at Lords. I maintain that they WOULD have won, had Panesar bowled 51 overs in the second innings rather than Freddie. It would also have saved Flintoff’s ankle, which England need in pristine condition for at least the next five years. It is rather hard to disagree with Geoff Boycott’s (bless him) typically blunt assessment of the proceedings:
England should have beaten Sri Lanka 3-0 in the Test series but they are unrecognisable from the team which won the Ashes last year.
I love Boycott, for his Northern-ness, the fact that he seems to parody himself when commentating these days (“My mum could play these Sri Lankan bowlers”) and his all-round bluntness. How can you not feel affection for someone who says this:
The likes of Graham Gooch, David Gower and myself would have all found it difficult [batting against Murali on that pitch] but the key was we wouldn’t have got in that position in the first place.
He’s a joy to listen to. But we are getting distracted from the main issue: England’s naffness. In the good old days, when we were accustomed to England losing wickets every five minutes, this wasn’t a problem. Now England hold the Ashes, and travel to Australia this winter. Should England perform this badly in Australia, it will be difficult to laugh the defeat off.
Should England lose, the interest in cricket will wane, because the feel-good factor in English cricket will have disappeared. Gradually, less attention will be paid to it, because, scandalously, it’s not on terresterial TV. Eventually, in this worse case scenario, cricket will get the same exposure as bowls. Then I will lose faith in humanity altogether.
I don’t think injuries are the key. Yes, we miss Jones and Harmison, but Plunkett and Mahmood proved themselves able enough prospects. Ashley Giles is more than adequately replaced by Monty Panesar is already a legend, straight from the Philip Tufnell academy of England legends. I will remember those boundaries off Murali for a long, long time. He bowls OK, too.
The key player needed is Michael Vaughan, and goodness knows when he will be back. There is talk of Andrew Strauss leading England. Continuity is needed, as is a killer instinct. Hopefully the one-day and Test series coming up will provide them. If not, expect a 1990s style Ashes series. One that is SERIOUSLY painful.
Some of you may have noticed from posts on this blog, and various others, that the Euston Manifesto was launched last night. Adam’s promised hot-off-the-press-report hasn’t materialised. My fear is that he overdid the informal session in the bar afterwards, and is still in bed with the mother of all hangovers. It wouldn’t be the first time this week. For now, the Manifeto unveiling is covered by Norm, with the complete text of his launch speech, and Clive Davis, complete with pictures.
And as if we didn’t need any more reasons to disassociate the Eustonians with other sections of the left, this came to my attention in the Independent.
The Respect MP George Galloway has said it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to murder Tony Blair.
In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: “Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?”
Mr Galloway replied: “Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did.”
You can tell it’s bad when even STOP THE WAR criticises the indefatigable one.
There’s also something in the article about the indefatigable one’s fawning of his newest favourite dictator.
Mr Galloway yesterday made a surprise appearance on Cuban television with the Caribbean island’s Communist dictator, Fidel Castro - whom he defended as a “lion” in a political world populated by “monkeys”.
And this passage came right out of a Mills and Boon novel.
Looking approvingly into each others’ eyes, the pair embraced.
All this homo-eroticism is making my head hurt. Back to the cricket.
-posted by Roy
The Euston Manifesto is launched later today. Adam is travelling to that as I type, and should jot his thoughts down much later tonight.
I just remembered: I’ve been too busy fretting about the Manifesto and revising, that I’d completely forgotten the Second Test starts today. And I switched to Cricinfo and found Sri Lanka were 25-4. Now they are 46-5. Marvellous.
UPDATE - 65-6 at lunch. Blissful.
Those who come to this site lusting for politics, rather than for spasmodic updates of the Test Score, should read Norman Geras in the Guardian. He is marvellous as always. I also have my eyes on the pensions deals, and will doutbless blog about that next week. Now I really must do some work!
